"This high and skinny pyramid of iron ladders, this giant ungainly skeleton upon a base that looks built to carry a colossal monument of Cyclops, but which just peters out into a ridiculous thin shape like a factory chimney" -- Guy de Maupassant, writer, 1850-1893 less

"This high and skinny pyramid of iron ladders, this giant ungainly skeleton upon a base that looks built to carry a colossal monument of Cyclops, but which just peters out into a ridiculous thin shape like a ... more

Photo: Ann Head Hilton, Bad Latitude

"This high and skinny pyramid of iron ladders, this giant... Photo-5469898.74180 - NewsTimes

Image 4 of 11

Maupassant ate lunch frequently at the restaurant at the base of the Eiffel Tower after it was complete. He said it was the only site in Paris where he couldn't see the structure.

Maupassant ate lunch frequently at the restaurant at the base of the Eiffel Tower after it was complete. He said it was the only site in Paris where he couldn't see the structure.

From "Protest against the Tower of Monsieur Eiffel", published in the newspaper Le Temps: "We come, we writers, painters, sculptors, architects, lovers of the beauty of Paris which was until now intact, to protest with all our strength and all our indignation, in the name of the underestimated taste of the French, in the name of French art and history under threat, against the erection in the very heart of our capital ..." less

From "Protest against the Tower of Monsieur Eiffel", published in the newspaper Le Temps: "We come, we writers, painters, sculptors, architects, lovers of the beauty of Paris which was until now intact, to ... more

Photo: Spud Hilton, Bad Latitude

From "Protest against the Tower of Monsieur Eiffel",... Photo-5469902.74180 - NewsTimes

Image 8 of 11

"... of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower which popular ill-feeling, so often an arbiter of good sense and justice, has already christened the Tower of Babel. ..."

"... of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower which popular ill-feeling, so often an arbiter of good sense and justice, has already christened the Tower of Babel. ..."

Photo: Spud Hilton, Bad Latitude

"... of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower which popular... Photo-5469903.74180 - NewsTimes

Image 9 of 11

"... imagine for a moment a tower of ridiculous vertiginous height dominating Paris,just like a gigantic black factory chimney, its barbarous mass overwhelming and humiliating all our monuments and belittling our works of architecture, which will just disappear before this stupefying folly. ..." less

"... imagine for a moment a tower of ridiculous vertiginous height dominating Paris,just like a gigantic black factory chimney, its barbarous mass overwhelming and humiliating all our monuments and belittling ... more

Photo: Spud Hilton, Bad Latitude

"... imagine for a moment a tower of ridiculous vertiginous... Photo-5469904.74180 - NewsTimes

Image 10 of 11

"And for twenty years we shall see spreading across the whole city, a city shimmering with the genius of so many centuries, we shall see spreading like an ink stain, the odious shadow of this odious column of bolted metal." less

"And for twenty years we shall see spreading across the whole city, a city shimmering with the genius of so many centuries, we shall see spreading like an ink stain, the odious shadow of this odious column of ... more

Photo: Spud Hilton, Bad Latitude

"And for twenty years we shall see spreading across the whole... Photo-5469905.74180 - NewsTimes